A CD ROM with all the reports resulting from the AGIR project could be freely ordered at info@enepri.org

Final Conference:

The main results from this project were presented at a conference that took place in Brussels on 10th March 2005.
The programme of the AGIR Final Conference, including links to the presentations, is available here.

Background:

A question increasingly raised in recent years is whether the trend towards longer life expectancy has been accompanied by comparable increases in the expectancy of a life in good health (or free from disability). The answer to this question is important for projecting health care expenditure and for forecasting retirement patterns over the coming decades. The AGIR project aimed at exploring all available information in Europe to illustrate whether people are not only living longer but also in a better health. Data providing evidence on the impact of the health status of the population on the use of health care and on retirement decisions was also collected. This information was used to make projections of future developments of pension and health expenditure in several EU countries. Finally, the project analysed different policy options available to influence the pension and health expenditure in the future.
The AGIR project, which started in January 2002 and finished in March 2005, was developed in two phases. The first phase was devoted to the search and compilation of data, on which the second analytical phase was based. In particular, data were collected on:

Demographic and health evolution of the population in various EU countries in the last 50 years

Use of health care services, particularly of long-term care and informal care, and its relation to age and health, as well as the link between informal care giving and the labour force participation of women

Determinants of retirement, considering the individuals' valuation of domestic work

In a second phase, projections of future health and pension expenditure were prepared under different health and demographic scenarios. Building upon these results, the last part of the project analysed the public policy implications, in particular the scope to influence the development of health and retirement expenditure over the coming decades.